Crazy Americans
by kurai-tsubasa
Summary: To save himself, Draco is sent to the States to live with a host family for 10 months. While he's there, he may learn a few things about himself and the life he leads.
1. Travelling

Disclaimer/looks around room/ oh please. The only thing I own are the figments of my imagination, in this case, basically anyone you don't recognize. wait, scratch that. I own Draco's new name, The Andersons, and Amanda. Amanda is mine. anyone who steals her faces my Sei-chan plot bunny. beware the Sakurazukamori!

Summary: To protect Draco from Voldemort, Dumbledore sends him on a foreign exchange student program to America. Draco learns some things from his new family, and he teaches them some things too. But can he protect them from the truth?

Author Notes: Since this should take place during the trio's fifth year, and Draco was mentioned, this is an AU fic. This is in response to a challenge on my friend's Hogwarts site. The challenge was to send Draco on a trip. I chose a student exchange program. Hope you like it! Also, just fair warning, this was posted elsewhere, but i haven't updated it since January. so please don't bug me, b/c my muses seemed to have abandoned my HP fics. /mutters/ they have no problems with my Sei/Su angst fics though.../grumbles/

Crazy Americans

"I don't know how he found out, sir!" Draco Malfoy pleaded with Dumbledore. They were in Dumbledore's office after two Death Eaters had been defeated.

"They were obviously after you, seeing as they went towards the Slytherin table rather than the Gryffindor one. For your protection, I have made arrangements for you to become part of a foreign exchange student program. I do not know where you will be staying; you will find that out at their office. Also, if Voldemort tries to make me reveal where you are, I will not be able to. You may want to assume a different name for the registry, but once you are at your new home, it is your choice. I do not know how long you will be gone; you must give that information to me yourself."

"Yes, sir. I will pack immediately. One question, though. When do I leave?"

"You will go to their office tomorrow. You may not want to pack just yet; where you are going will have some effect on what you should pack. Do not tell me where you will be going, but do tell me when you will leave. Do not tell any of your fellow students; this should be kept at utmost secrecy."

"One more question. How will I get to the offices, and then to from wherever I'm leaving from?"

"You will travel by Floo powder to the offices; the bakery next door is run by an old witch, and is connected to the Floo network. We will discuss how to get to where you are leaving from when we learn where you are leaving from. That is all. You may return to your dormitory. Come to my office after breakfast, and wear Muggle clothes. If you do not have any, borrow some."

Draco nodded and walked toward the doorway. He walked down the stairs and half-consciously wandered back to the Slytherin dungeons. He said the password, 'Pure-blood,' and walked up to his dormitory. He lay down on the bed, and almost instantly fell asleep.

Draco had borrowed some Muggle jeans and a black shirt from Blaise Zabini, who was also in his dorm. He walked to the gargoyle which marked Dumbledore's office, and whispered 'Gummy Worms' as the wall slid back and he walked up the stairs.

"I'm ready sir," Draco called out to the seemingly empty office. He looked around and spotted Dumbledore looking through an oddly shaped spy-glass. Dumbledore stood up and walked over to where Draco was standing.

"You will be traveling alone, as none of the teachers can go with you. The exchange office is right next door to the bakery in which you will exit. Tell them you are the student that Albus recommended. They will ask you your name. You must think of one, as well as names for your 'parents.' I will give you something that you must memorize," Dumbledore said. He handed Draco a piece of paper with writing on it. "This is a fake address and telephone number. The address is to an illusion which makes people forget what they were doing there, and the phone number connects straight to an answering machine."

"Thank you, sir. But before I leave, may I ask something?"

Dumbledore nodded, and Draco continued, "What does Voldemort want with me?"

"Alas, I do not know that myself. My guess is that he wants you to serve him, and since you have openly resisted him, that angers him. The only way to be certain what he wants would be to either read his mind or ask him, neither of which anybody would be able to do. Ah well. You may use the fireplace in that corner. There should be a bowl of Floo powder next to it."

Draco walked over to the small fireplace and stepped inside, ducking as he did so. He hated traveling by Floo powder, but as Apparating and Disapparating inside the castle was impossible, this was the only way to travel. He grabbed a handful of powder out of the bowl, threw it down, shouted the bakery's name, and was gone in a rush of green flame. He exited moments later at a bakery in the heart of London and brushed off the soot and ash from his clothes. He nodded to the elderly witch who ran the place, and as it was still fairly early, there were few customers. He walked out the door and walked over to the foreign exchange student office. He opened the door and walked up to the counter. He said to the secretary, "I was sent here by Albus. I'm supposed to take part in one of your programs."

"Ah. Your name?"

Draco had thought about this one last night for a while before choosing a name that sounded normal, yet still close to his own. "My name is Jacob Silay."

The secretary started typing, while sounding out his new alias. "J-A-C-O-B Silay. How do you spell that dear?"

"S-I-L-A-Y"

"Okay. S-I-L-A-Y. Thank you, Jacob. Here's a form for you to fill out. There are pens in that cup next to you."

Draco walked over to one of the chairs against the wall and began to fill the form out. About ten minutes later he returned to the desk and handed the secretary the clipboard on which the form was attached..

"Thank you, Jacob. I see here you have checked that you want to go on our longest program, which is one full school year. We only have three countries which allow that program. Would you like to go to America, Japan, or Russia. Do you speak any foreign languages?"

"No I do not." Well, he spoke Latin, but that wouldn't help. "I would like to go to America."

"Very well. I need your parents," here she looked at the form to find his parents' names, "Amanda and Brian, to sign this consent form. Please return it to us within a week, and you should return in a week after you send in your form to finalize the details. Thank you, Jacob."

Draco walked out of the office feeling a little dazed. He wondered where in the United States he would be going. He decided to wander around a little bit before returning to Hogwarts. Walking down the street, he looked in different shop windows until he came to a travel shop. He decided when he learned exactly where he was going, he'd come back here. When he got back to the bakery, he bought a roll and ate it before stepping into the fireplace and traveling back to Hogwarts.

"Dumbledore, who will sign for my parents?"

"Professor Sprout will sign for your mother, and Professor Flitwick will sign for your father. Please give them the form tonight. We will send it by owl to the bakery, where it will be put in the office's mailbox."

"Yes, sir."

Draco walked out of the office, form in hand, to the teacher's lounge, (if they have one, do they?)and found Flitwick and Sprout, had them sign it, and took the form to the school owlery. He tied it onto the leg of an owl along with a note that read: 'Please put this in the exchange student office's mailbox. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore'

Draco walked up to the secretary once again, who greeted him with a nod and a "Hello, Jacob. If you would wait just a second, our program director will be with you shortly."

Draco sat down and wondered exactly where he would be going. After what seemed like an eternity, but was only five minutes, the secretary told him he could go in. "It's down the hallway, and the fourth door to your right."

Draco got up and walked through the door. He walked down a hallway which held pictures of students of all ages standing in front of international monuments. He knocked on the door the secretary had told him to go to. The door opened, and a woman whom reminded Draco strongly of Professor McGonagall told him to sit down. She walked around a desk and sat down.

"Now Jacob. I understand you want to participate in our one-year program to the United States. Is that right?"

Draco nodded and said, "Yes, ma'am."

"Unfortunately, we only have one location that is not starting their school year until now. Do you mind?"

"No ma'am. I like to travel and do not mind where I am." Secretly he was hoping somewhere civilized, instead of out in some farm county.

"Well, then. You will be staying with the Anderson family in San Francisco, California. They have a fifteen year old daughter, and ten year old twins. You will attend school at," here she checked her sheet, "The College Preparatory School with Alyssa, the eldest. Of course, with it being the prestigious school it is, you will need at least a 3.5 GPA, which I see you have. However, if the directors see fit, you will be dismissed and attend the local high school. You will do as the Andersons do. Here are your plane tickets. You will be leaving this Friday. I'm sorry for the short notice, (A/N: I know that you need serious applications in advance, but hey, this is Harry Potter fan fiction! Anything can happen! winks) but that is when the rest of our exchange students in that area are leaving. We will be meeting in front of the airport at noon on Friday. Please be there, or you will not be able to enjoy this wondrous opportunity. I trust you will be there on time?"

"Yes, ma'am, I will be there on time." Draco knew how much depended on his getting to America safely and without mishap, so he planned to be there early. When he had heard that he was going to a city he had actually heard of, he let out an internal sigh of relief. San Francisco, he knew, had tall buildings and was a center of civilization.

When he arrived at the airport on Friday, he saw the group of teenagers he supposed were also going to San Francisco in this program. He knew that he would have to meet at least once weekly with this group to discuss how life in the States was different than the lives they had been living here in England. He did not have as much luggage as everyone else, but he knew that was because he had used magic, probably his last for a while, to get the largest amount of clothes possible into his suitcases. He had a smaller bag with things such as an extra change of clothes, a toothbrush and toothpaste, books, and most importantly, his wand. He knew that he probably would not be using his wand, particularly because he did not know if he legally could. He knew there were witches and wizards in the States, but they apparently had different rules for using magic. He checked to make sure he had everything, and once he was sure, started towards the small group of teenagers.

Once the place was in the air, he learned that it would take about ten hours to get to SFO (San Francisco International Airport). He turned to his neighbor, a rather ordinary-looking girl, and opened his mouth to ask he what her name was.

"I wouldn't ask her anything if I were you. Once you've got Manda started on a topic, even if it's just her name, it's almost impossible to shut her up. By the way, I'm Peter, Manda's spokesperson." said the boy who was sitting on the other side of Draco. He had black spiky hair, and had a mischievous look on his face and he stuck out his hand for Draco to shake while Manda punched him in the arm, glaring at him, but smiling.

"Dra...Jacob Silay. Nice to meet you both. Where are you guys staying?"

Manda replied on this one, before Peter could say anything, "sadly, the 'expert' and I are staying with the same family. We're staying in a suburb named ...Berkeley, right Peter?"

"Yeah, Berkeley. 'Liberal Capital of the World', or so the guidebook says. Where are you staying, Jacob?"

"I'm staying with a family in San Francisco. Are you guys attending a local school?"

Peter took this one. "Both Manda and I are going to a school called Head Royce with the daughter. We're gonna be Year 10's, or sophomores, as they're called there. I'm not too sure if it's local or not."

" I'm going to a school called The College Preparatory School. I think it's in San Francisco, but I don't know."

When she heard the name of Draco's school, Manda said, "OOOO! You're going to CPS! We're gonna be rivals!" with this, she punched him in the arm. "College Prep and Head Royce are serious rivals!" When Peter gave her a questioning look, she replied with a shrug "I wrote a letter to Esther, the girl we're staying with. She told me all about the school. Looks like we'll be seeing more of you during the school season, Jacob." she ended this statement with another punch to Draco's arm. Peter just looked at Manda and shook his head at her in amazement of her weirdness.

Draco checked his new digital watch. "Only four more hours till we land."

"I'm gonna take a nap. Jet lag always throws me off; maybe I can beat it this time." Manda reached for her bag under the seat and pulled out a flat stuffed panda. At Draco's questioning look, she replied "Peter got it for me for my birthday. He thinks it's so funny how Manda and Panda are the same except for one letter. It's a good luck charm." With this explanation, she promptly turned over and said to neither Peter or Draco in particular, "Wake me up when we're landing; I wanna see the lights."

"Oooo! There's the Golden Gate Bridge! And there's the airport! Ouch!" Draco laughed as Manda, who had been enthusiastically pointing out famous San Francisco landmarks, bumped her head against the window as the plane landed.

"Please remain seated with your seatbelts fasted until we reach the gate and the captain turns off the fastened seatbelt sign. Local date and time is Friday, September 3, 10:47 A.M. The weather is mostly clear and about 75 degrees farenheight. On behalf of our captain and our flight crew, we hope you had a pleasant flight and hope you have a pleasant stay in San Francisco." The flight attendants voice came scratchily over the intercom as the plane skidded to a halt in front of the gate.

Since Draco and the rest of the group was near the front of the plane, the group got off the plane fairly quickly. The group learned that their host families would either be picking them up from the airport or they would be dropped off at their house by a charter bus. Draco hoped it would be the former instead of the latter, as he'd had enough traveling with a group for one day. Their supervisor, Mrs. Stanton, was calling out the names of the teens who would be taking the bus to their new home. Apparently, the list was in alphabetical order, so it would be easy for Draco to tell.

"Salon, Jasmine...Shapiro, Ellen...Simon, David..." Draco let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't been called to take the bus, which meant he would be meeting his host family when the group got to baggage claim.

When the group got to baggage claim, there were about ten families with signs that had a student's name written on them, apparently waiting for the exchange group. Draco searched for the sign with his name on it, forgetting for a second that his new family would not know him by Draco Malfoy, but rather Jacob Silay. He found the sign with his new name on it, and looked at the family hold the sign. The family _looked_ normal enough, but as Draco knew, looks could be deceiving. He tried to remember who was who in the family, and as he looked at the five people with whom he would be sharing the next ten months of his life with, he realized he was going to enjoy this.

The mother looked nice; she was smiling broadly and had a motherly look to her face. The father had his arm around the mother; not quite smiling with his mouth, but his eyes gave his excitement of being here away. The twins, who Draco immediately saw were identical, were running around a girl who was clearly bored with standing there, and wanted to leave, with or without the exchange student they came here for. Alyssa, Draco remembered, was the eldest, and as he watched, she, with the ease that comes from doing something multiple times, stopped the twins, and held them still. Draco thought about waving to them to let them know he was there, but he decided he should get his bags and walk up to them and introduce himself.

"Hi. I'm Jacob. Jacob Silay. You must be the Andersons. I'm very glad to meet you all." Draco stuck out his hand to the family.

"Hi, Jacob. I'm Christine. My husband here is Michael, and our children, Alyssa, Morgan, and Malcolm. Welcome to the family." Ignoring Draco's hand, Christine enveloped Draco into a friendly hug.

Draco picked up his bags and followed the Andersons out to the parking lot, where his bags were tossed into a green minivan. He climbed in as well, and ended up sitting between the twins, Morgan and Malcolm, whom he could not tell apart at all. When Morgan (or was it Malcolm?) gave his mother trouble for not being able to tell them apart, Draco groaned inwardly, thinking to himself, "Great; if their own mother, who has known them for nine years, can't even tell them apart, then I'm gonna have a hell of a time trying." When both of the twins smiled at him with the exact same smile at the exact same time, he shuddered; there was evil in the smile they were giving him. When Alyssa turned around and sent a death glare to the back seat, he cringed until he realized she was giving it to the twins, not to him. "Stop giving Jacob a hard time, you two." She now turned to Draco and gave him a knowing look. "Consider yourself lucky, Jacob. I've had to deal with these two for nine years; you've only had to deal with them for nine minutes." She grabbed one of the twins' heads and ground her knuckles into his head. Morgan/Malcolm tried to wiggle out of her grasp, and then cried, "Mom! Alyssa's being mean again!" "Alyssa, stop torturing your brother." "But Mom, I wasn't doing anything! They were the ones freaking Jacob out!" "No we weren't!" "Jacob, are you okay?" "I'm fine."

When the minivan started to cross over the Bay Bridge, Jacob asked, "I thought you lived in San Francisco?"

Alyssa answered, "We put that down because we thought we'd have a better chance of getting a transfer student if we were from a large city like San Francisco. You've never heard of Oakland, have you?"

"No, can't say I have."

"See, exactly what I mean. Oakland is just as much a large city as is San Francisco, but Oakland isn't as well known."

"Okay."

oh guys, PLEASE review. I don't know what to think of this story any more, so i need you to tell me whether to keep it, kill it, or bug my muses about continuing it. There's another chapter, but it's undergoing some SERIOUS revisions.


	2. New Beginnings

Disclaimer: nothing has changed since the last chapter. cries actually, i own more stuff now: i own all of Alyssa's friends, and oh how i wish i owned DNAngel or Juvenile Orion...alas i don't. and damn it, i don't own any of the anime or manga mentioned, Benihana's, or the Sun Valley Mall.

Warning: gomenasai for this chapter guys, i know there's quite a bit of anime overload. just ignore it for now. i needed to get it out of my system.Oh, and extreme genkiness (hyperness) on the part of my OC's. and quite probably no update for a long while, unless i get a lot of reviews.

Crazy Americans- Chapter Two

New Beginnings

Draco woke the next morning in a bright room. He sat up in bed and looked around at his new room. The room was fairly bare; lacking the personal touch of a lived-in room. There bed was small, pushed up against the wall to provide more space for the desk and dresser that also occupied the room. It was a narrow room, but somehow everything seemed to fit without cramping the room too much. Draco sighed, got out of bed, and pulled his luggage off the portable luggage rack the Andersons had given him the night before. He cringed as his heavy bag fell to the floor with a loud thump.

"Jacob, is that you? Are you awake?" Draco heard Mrs. Anderson's voice call out.

"Yes, it was just my luggage."

"Well, if you're awake, come out for breakfast! If you don't hurry up, it'll be lunch soon!"

"Coming"

Draco opened his luggage and pushed it against the wall to unpack later. He walked down the hall and downstairs to find the Andersons sitting at a table in the kitchen with a large breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and orange juice on the table. Morgan and Malcolm were fighting over who would get the last pancake, and Alyssa was rolling her eyes at the twins, finally hitting one of them over the head and taking the pancake herself. She put it on a plate and handed it to Draco.

"We normally don't have large breakfasts, and this is exactly the reason why." she said as a sort of explanation for the twin's behavior. Draco sat down and took some sausage and began to eat. He didn't get far though, because he was interrupted by the twin closest to him, whom he guessed was Malcolm, but wasn't too sure.

"That's such a boring way to eat sausage and pancakes! You've gotta do it like this!" Malcolm reached over Draco, taking the sausage and rolling it up in the pancake. "There! Pigs in blankets!" Malcolm gave a short nod. "That's the way to eat pancakes and sausage! Now, just put something on top, and you can eat it!"

Draco looked at the pancake wrapped sausage, and then with a questioning look at Alyssa, who shrugged, gave a small snort, and turned back to her own breakfast. Now both Malcolm and Morgan were pressing Draco to eat the pig-in-blanket, shaking him in his seat and yelling "Try it! Try it!" Draco sighed and ate the pig-in-blanket, which was actually pretty good.

After breakfast, Draco went back upstairs to unpack. Mrs. Anderson came in every once in a while to ask if he needed help or needed anything. After unpacking for about an hour or so (he had a lot of luggage, after all, it was a six month trip), he realized that he had an audience. Alyssa had been leaning against the doorjamb, watching him unpack for about five minutes. He turned and gave her a glare. "How long have you been standing there?"

"I was wondering how long it'd take you to realize I was standing there. Certainly took you long enough. Well, later." She turned and started to walk down the hallway.

"Wait! Why were you standing there in the first place?" Draco called after her.

Alyssa turned and smacked her head. "Right! I was supposed to tell you something. Mom sent me to tell you that we're going out to dinner tonight and to wear something warm." She paused, as if thinking. She shrugged and said, "Jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with some kind of jacket should be fine. We're not going anywhere fancy, so don't dress up." With that, she turned and walked away.

Once he'd finished packing and rested, Draco went back downstairs to see Alyssa sitting on the couch with a large open binder on her lap, a pencil in one hand, and throwing a pillow at one of the twins. She yelled at him in a foreign language that Draco didn't understand.

"Anata wa taihen bakute aiwakui desu!"

"Mom! Alyssa's yelling at me in Japanese again! I can't understand her; she's probably insulting me or cussing!"

"That's the point Morgan, duh!"

Morgan stuck out his tongue at Alyssa, who in turn stuck out her tongue and pulled down her right eye. Morgan turned and ran out of the room while Alyssa turned back to the binder on her lap, muttering under her breath in Japanese. Draco walked into the room and looked over Alyssa's shoulder at her binder. All he saw was a bunch of markings; nothing that made any sense to him. He figured that it was her Japanese homework and shook his head.

"You know, I really hate it when people read over my shoulder." Draco started at this remark; Alyssa hadn't even stopped what she was doing. "Especially when it's people who can't read Japanese, because most of the time, the next thing out of their mouth is a request for translation."

Draco was more than a little taken aback. "How would you know what's going through my mind? Maybe I didn't want a translation. Maybe I'm reading over your shoulder because I know it annoys you. Maybe I'm in league with Malcolm and Morgan and I'm on a mission to annoy you to the point of insanity. You don't know what's going through my mind." He looked down at Alyssa, who finally turned around to face him, an amused expression on her face and one eyebrow raised.

"Uh-huh, you expect me to believe that. Yeah, right." She sighed and looked at her watch. "Well, since we've only got fifteen minutes before we leave, I might as well stop." She closed her binder and stood up. "Don't think I've forgotten this, because I won't." With the binder under one arm, she brushed past him and out of the room. Draco stood and started at her retreating form. 'Damn, she's got more spunk than Granger. She could easily be a Slytherin,' he thought to himself, smirking at little.

A few minutes later, the rest of the family came downstairs, and they all left for dinner. This time, Draco got one of the middle seats, so he wasn't submitting himself to the tortures of the twins.

"So, Jacob, how do you like it here so far?" Mr. Anderson asked as he pulled the minivan out of the driveway.

"It's fine. Though I can't really say accurately, since I've only been here."

Mrs. Anderson turned around in the front seat to look at him and Alyssa. She turned to Alyssa first and asked, "Alyssa, you said you needed to go shopping, right? Do you want to go tomorrow?"

Alyssa stopped staring out the window, turned to her mother, and replied, "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. Tomorrow's fine," and turned back to the window, where she started out at the Oakland hills.

"Jacob, do you want to come with us? It would be a perfect opportunity for you to see a few sights and get out of the house."

"Sure. It would be fun."

In the backseat, the twins stopped fighting for a minute to cry out, "Hey! Can we go shopping too? Why can't we go shopping with you?"

Alyssa stopped staring out the window again to retort, "Because, we're going clothes shopping, not brain shopping."

Draco laughed to himself and looked out the window as well, watching various buildings and other cars go past.

When the minivan pulled off the freeway, the twins started yelling gleefully, "Benihana's! Benihana's!" Draco looked over at Alyssa, hoping for an explanation. He wasn't disappointed.

"Benihana's is a Japanese restaurant. It's got sushi and cooked food. The cooked food is cooked right in front of you. You'll see," she replied when Draco looked a little confused at how food could be cooked at a restaurant table.

When they walked into the restaurant, a dozen different sounds and smells assaulted Draco's senses. The yelling of people, the sizzling of food, people talking and laughing, waiters yelling at one another, the smell of the grilled food, and the salty sweet smell of soy sauce filled the air. Once they were seated, Draco started to realize just how the food was cooked at the table. The table was more of a counter bordering a flat stove/grill. When the chef came, Alyssa looked over at her mother with a semi-questioning gaze. Mrs. Anderson nodded, and Alyssa began to speak in Japanese to the chef.

"Sake no sashimi to amaebi to maguro no sashimi wo o tabe ni alimasu. Soshite, toliniku wo tabe ni alimasu kudasai." She smiled a superior smile and turned to the twins and Draco, almost daring them to try and copy her feat. Draco almost wished he could speak Japanese, if only to replace that annoying superior smile with a shocked expression. Instead, he ordered his food in English.

When the chef returned with the food, Draco was kind of surprised to see it still raw. But his confusion soon turned into a slight excitement at being able to watch his food be cooked right in front of him.

Once their dinner was cooked, Mr. Anderson turned to Draco and asked, "So, Jacob, shy did you decide to be a transfer student?"

Draco smiled inwardly, thinking about what their reaction would be if he told them the real truth. 'Oh yeah, that'll go over well. They'll just readily accept the fact that there are wizards in the world, and an especially evil one is pissed off at me and wants to kill me because I betrayed him. That's a sure-fire way to get myself sent to a psychologist, or worse, an insane asylum.' Instead, he told them a semi-truth. "I just wanted a change. A change in setting, and I also thought it would be fun to experience a new culture."

The Andersons seemed to accept this answer, and Draco gave an internal sigh of relief. 'Well, that part of the lie's taken care of,' he thought and went back to eating his dinner. He had let Mrs. Anderson help choose something for him, since he wasn't familiar with Japanese food, and she would order in English, unlike Alyssa, who would probably order some strange food like monkey brain in Japanese and not tell him what it was until he had eaten it.

The conversation shifted to the topic of school, and what classes Draco would take.

"Well, he'll have to test for math and science, since he's not a freshman. History he can't do much about, since everyone has to take World Civ before Western Civ. English, I'm not sure about; I'll talk to Mrs. Stayne about it. As for a language, that's for Jacob to decide. What language do you take or have taken or speak?" Alyssa asked Draco.

" I speak Latin pretty fluently, but it's a dead language, so it probably won't be of much use. At my school, we didn't really take foreign languages." 'Learning the spells was a language in and of itself' Draco thought to himself.

"Well, that'll do pretty well. CPS offers Latin as a course, but you could also take Spanish, French or Japanese."

"I'd rather take something other than Latin; I can speak and read fairly fluently."

"Then you should take Japanese! Sensei is cool and really nice, but you'd have to take Japanese I, since you don't know any Japanese." Alyssa said this last statement with a bit of haughtiness behind her voice.

"That's fine. I may take Spanish anyways."

"NO! You have to take Japanese! There so aren't enough people in Japanese; there are way too many in Spanish!" Alyssa yelled, catching the attention of the entire restaurant. Realizing that everyone was staring at her, she blushed and lowered her voice to a normal decibel level. "Besides, the Spanish teachers aren't that nice. Sensei's really nice."

Slightly frightened by the display of emotion, more than he had seen her display since he'd met her, Draco nodded and said he'd take Japanese. "So, what's this about testing into math and science?"

"Well, freshman usually take Math I or Math II and Physical Science, but some test higher, but they're special. Sophomores usually take Math II or Math III and Chemistry. You'll have to test into those since both the math and science classes build on the foundation set by the earlier class. So basically, you have to take a few tests so that they can tell you where you need to be. They don't always do the best job at determining what level a person should be at.

"I tested into Math II, and spent the majority of the first semester there. I ended up with a C grade, and getting 47's on tests. Finally, the math department decided I would be better off in Math I. I'm not sure how I ended up in Math II in the first place; I got a 40 on the entrance test. I'm kinda looking forward to cruising through the first semester, since I've done most of it already. I'm a Math II dropout, part of an elite group of sophomores who dropped out of Math II into Math I." Alyssa finished her speech with an almost proud look on her face, but she soon broke down and started laughing.

When they got back to the Anderson's house, Malcolm and Morgan ran inside, Alyssa behind them screaming, "Don't you two brats touch the TV! Kenshin, FMA, InuYasha, and .Hack are on tonight, and I'll be damned if you two get in my way of watching them!"

Draco was more than a little confused. Mrs. Anderson saw him and explained, "Alyssa's almost as obsessive of her cartoons as a little kid."

"THEY'RE NOT CARTOONS! THEY'RE ANIME! THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!" came the ferociously loud reply from the den.

Draco laughed out loud, drawing the gaze of Alyssa. "You know, that's the first time you've laughed out loud. I've seen you smirk and semi-smile, but never laugh. You're not normal." She turned back to her previous activity, which was protecting the remote from the twins as she watched a red-headed guy with wide eyes suddenly narrow his eyes, pull out a sword and kill a few people. Draco decided to see what Alyssa was so protective of and sat down on the couch as well.

After watching the both amusing and serious antics of Kenshin, FMA (Fullmetal Alchemist) was an abrupt change. Darker and more serious, Draco was instantly drawn to the show. He turned to Alyssa to ask for some background, but stopped when he saw her with her knees drawn up, head on her knees, crying.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying hard or anything am I?"

"No, but you're still crying."

"It's just so sad. I mean, Nina was his own daughter. So innocent and trusting."

"Can you give me some background on the characters? It might help."

"Okay, Edward and Alphonse are brothers whose father was a famous alchemist who left them when they were very young. Ed has a very strong talent for alchemy, and in the last episode qualified to become a State Alchemist, the youngest ever at age 12. Al is a suit of armor because when their mother died, they tried to bring her back using alchemy, and Al's body was destroyed, and the only thing Ed could find to attach Al's soul to was the suit of armor in the corner. Ed's arm and leg are metal because he had to sacrifice them to save Al. They're searching for the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies back to normal. That enough for you?"

"Yeah. But..."

"Shh! Commercial's over!"

Once FMA ended, another change of pace occured with InuYasha, which was nowhere near as dark. More action-oriented, it had more humor, and soon Alyssa was laughing again. The twins had given up trying to get the remote after Kenshin, and had decided to watch. They were cheering as InuYasha defeated a rather large, rather ugly demon.

.Hack was next. Since it didn't look like a very serious anime, Draco tried to ask Alyssa a question, but was quickly rebuffed.

"Shh! You need to pay attention if you're going to get this one! It may not look complicated, oh but it is. So shut up and watch!"

Draco could not make heads or tails of .Hack, but was a little intimidated by Alyssa, since he had seen how intent she was on watching and not being interrupted, so didn't ask. Once the show ended, he turned to Alyssa with a very confused look on his face. She laughed at him, and apologized.

"Sorry, but it was so funny. You looked so confused, and I suppose you have the right to be confused. .Hack is pretty complicated to begin with, and this is one of the later episodes, which makes it even more confusing." She turned to look at the twins, who had fallen asleep on the couch, and laughed. "They can never make it past the first half of .Hack without falling asleep. Well, that's all the anime that's on tonight; what did you think?"

"They were all pretty good, but that last one was confusing."

"Yeah, that can happen. I've got a lot more anime; do you want to watch it tomorrow?"

Draco had decided that it was probably best to stay on his hostess' good side, and after what he had seen tonight, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to do so. "Sure, but please explain what happens if we're not starting with an early episode!"

Alyssa snorted at this. "We'll make an otaku of you yet. But it's too late to watch any more tonight." She yawned, "I'm going to bed; you should too. Wake the twerps before you go upstairs please."

Draco went upstairs to his room and sat down on the bed, head in his hands. The conversation over dinner had reminded him of the situation back at Hogwarts and in the wizarding world.

He still wasn't exactly sure why the Death Eaters had come for him in the Great Hall, but he had a pretty good hunch that it was somehow connected to his being a double spy. He had decided to become a double spy because he had decided that working under a madman whose goal it was to destroy the world was not his cup of tea. He wasn't a member of the Order of the Phoenix yet, and it gave him some pleasure to know that neither Potter nor his friends were members yet either. But it still puzzled him how Voldemort could have found out about his being a double spy. Draco shook his head. It would just cause more trouble than it was worth to worry about it here. After all, that was his main reason for coming here in the first place: to get away from the whole dilemma. And yet, he couldn't help but wonder about what was happening back in England, since he couldn't send or receive any owls. Draco shook his head again and got into bed. He would deal with all this later. Right now, it was 1:30 a.m. and he needed to sleep.

The next morning, Draco woke to the pounding of feet and loud voices. He rubbed his eyes and listened harder.

"GIVE THAT BACK MORGAN! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE TWERP, GIVE IT BACK!" 'That would be Alyssa' Draco thought.

"MAKE ME!" 'And that would be Morgan'

"MORGAN, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER HOUR, YOU'LL GIVE ME BACK MY COPY OF DNANGEL NOW!"

Draco opened his door, just to see Morgan fly past the doorway, with Alyssa right behind him. Morgan darted into the room next to Draco's and shut the door behind him, trapping Alyssa in the hall. Alyssa tried the door, and seeing it was locked, she started to get really angry. Draco slowly backed up into his room, ready to avoid a sibling rivalry explosion.

"Morgan, I am giving you the count of three to get out of that room." Alyssa started in a calm voice; a voice that was very different than the emotion that clouded her face. "One...two...three." Seeing no movement from the door or from the room within, Alyssa tried a different approach.

"MORGAN YOU BRAT! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM BEFORE I CALL JESSICA SIMON AND TELL HER YOU WERE TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP ABOUT KISSING HER! DON'T THINK I WON'T!"

The door opened, and Morgan poked his head out. "You wouldn't really call Jessica, would you?" he asked in a sad, scared voice.

"I WILL IF YOU DON'T GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM AND GIVE ME BACK DNANGEL! SO GET YOUR ASS MOVING, NOW!"

Morgan tossed a rectangular box to the ground and ran. As soon as he had thrown the box down, Alyssa had dived for it, and managed to hit Morgan as he ran away. She picked up the box, hugged it to her chest, and saw Draco, still watching cautiously from his doorway.

"The danger's over. The civilians can come out of hiding now!" Alyssa called, and as Draco watched, Mr and Mrs Anderson, as well as Malcolm slowly came out of their respective rooms and seeing no blood or broken items, sighed with relief.

"So, I take it this happens often?" Draco asked Mr. Anderson as he passed by.

"Sadly, once or twice a week."

Draco grinned and walked over to Alyssa, who was still hugging the rectangular box, which upon approach, he saw was a DVD box.

"Are you okay?"

"I am now that I have my room and my DNAngel back," Alyssa replied with a grin.

"What's DNAngel?"

"Only one of the best animes ever! True, it's a romance/action anime, and the manga is so much better, but it's still awesome!"

Alyssa darted into her room to drop off her DVD, then came back into the hallway, where Draco was still waiting. "Come on, Jacob! Let's go get something to eat before the twins eat it all!"

After breakfast, Alyssa came into Draco's room. "Jacob, last night, you said you wanted to watch more anime. We've got about an hour and a half before we have to leave; do you want to watch some anime?"

"Sure, but you've got to promise to explain stuff, okay?"

"Sure, whatever."

Alyssa dragged Draco into her room, where the main features were a desk with absolutely no free space, a small TV and DVD player, and two bookshelves, both full, one with books, and one with anime and manga. The walls were covered with a mix of various pictures, wall ornaments, astronomy posters, and anime posters. The computer on the desk was blasting some music. Draco caught a few strains of lyrics in a language that wasn't English before Alyssa dragged him over to the anime/manga shelf. Alyssa started pulling out various DVDs and placing them on the floor in piles while muttering to herself.

"Let's see, Happy Lesson, that goes under random comedy, Kino's Journey, serious, Get Backers, action/comedy." After a while, she turned to Draco and said, "okay, we've got time to watch two episodes. What kind of stuff do you like to watch? Serious, comic, action, romance, sci-fi, mecha, shojo, or weird and random?"

Draco shrugged. "You pick. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

Alyssa shook her head. "I can tell we've got our work cut out for us."

"Who's 'us'?"

"The rabid otakus at school, duh. There's only about four of us, but we'll make an otaku out of you yet."

Draco looked skeptical. He still didn't know what an 'otaku' was yet, and was slightly embarrassed to ask, so didn't.

An hour later, Mrs. Anderson stuck her head into the room, only to be greeted with Alyssa's hysterical screech of "The Yukari-mobile! No! Don't take the Yukari-mobile! Don't do it Chiyo-chan!" and Draco's snicker of laughter.

"Are you two ready to go? We need to leave soon."

"Sure mom, we'll be ready in five. Don't worry."

Smirking slightly, Draco got up from the floor.

"So, what did you think? Pretty good, huh?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I'd show that to your brothers."

"God, no! For one, they don't understand any anime that doesn't have fighting or power levels in it, and for another, there's some stuff there my mom would kill me for showing to them." Still laughing, Alyssa pushed Draco out of her room, saying, "Watch out Grandpa! No! No! Watch out for that wall!" which set them both off in laughter. Mrs. Anderson just shook her head.

At the Sun Valley mall, Draco was amazed at how many people there were in just that one area. Sure, Diagon Alley was always filled with people, but it was a lot larger than the mall, and there seemed to be just as many people here. After being dragged through the junior's department of Macy's as well as Hot Topic and Anchor Blue, Draco thought he had seen enough girl's clothing to last a lifetime. True, he had gotten a few things for himself at Anchor Blue, but it still seemed like Mrs. Anderson had asked Alyssa her opinion on every item of clothing in all the stores. After leaving Anchor Blue, Alyssa grabbed Draco's arm and dragged him down the mall, yelling over her shoulder, "Jacob and I are going to Borders; be back in about an hour!"

"What's Borders and how are we going to spend an hour there?"

"Borders is a bookstore, and I'm going to introduce you to the joy of a good manga section."

Alyssa dragged Draco into a bookstore, narrowly avoiding a collision with a woman with a stroller and a guy who looked like he could punch a hole through the wall if he wanted to. She dragged him to the back of the store, where he was greeted by a wall of books with multi-colored covers, all with strange-sounding names.

"Okay, since it's clear you know nothing about manga, I'll start you off with a few personal faves. Now, just sit here and read these. If you like them I'll tell you if I've got them or not, and if I don't you can buy them." Alyssa started piling books into Draco's arms. "Let's see, DNAngel, Juvenile Orion, Saiyuki, InuYasha, Imadoki, Tokyo Babylon; that should do for now." She plopped down on the floor next to Draco and began running her finger along the rows of manga, pulling out a few every now or then or muttering about how they never updated their stock.

An hour later, Alyssa had piled a few manga next to her and was now sorting through it. She turned to Draco, who was still engrossed in Tokyo Babylon. She laughed, and when he looked up incredulously, she explained, "That's almost exactly how I looked when I read that part. I mean, how could Seishirou go through with the Bet after that? Don't worry, I've got the whole series at home."

When they finally got up, each with about two or three manga, Alyssa gasped and gave a little shriek.

"Kira? I knew, if I was going to run into you today, it'd be here! It's so good to see you!" She hugged the newcomer enthusiastically, then turned to Draco. "Jacob, this is my best friend and fellow otaku, Kira Mason."

"Are all your friends otakus?"

Kira replied, "No, it's pretty much just us and a few people who we're only in contact with during anime club meetings."

Draco had figured out that otaku had something to do with anime, and guessed that it meant an anime fan. Kira and Alyssa had started babbling about a new anime or manga, when suddenly Kira shrieked. "NO WAY! You've got to be kidding me!" "No joke, DNAngel 10 came out yesterday, and guess who's got a copy? Oh that and the little fact that I am the proud owner of a chibi Tsukasa/Israfel keychain!" Both girls shrieked, and then stopped when they realized that Draco was staring at them. With an evil look, the girls surrounded him, clasped hands, and started jumping up and down and shrieking with excitement. Draco clasped his hands to his ears and cringed.

They spent the rest of the day with Kira, whom Draco learned was a fountain of hyper activity, and seemed to be able to be hyper even without anime or manga as a motivation. While Alyssa blankly wandered around the clothes shops, Kira was darting from rack to rack, commenting on how tacky one thing was or how insane the prices were, and adopting different personas for each store she managed to drag Alyssa into. During the couple hours Draco spent with her, he learned she wanted to be an actress, which explained the personas. He was surprised, however, when Kira broke out into song while they were taking a rest on one of the benches. When it was time to leave, Kira and Alyssa hugged, and Kira hugged Draco, saying, "I'll see you tomorrow for the first day of school!" and then ran off, various shopping bags flying out behind her. Alyssa gasped.

"Oops! I completely forgot that tomorrow's the first day, and that we never got you any school supplies!" She took Draco's arm again, and dragged him off to the central area, where she found her mother and demanded they visit Staples for an emergency school supply run.

After the 'emergency school supply run', Alyssa, Draco and Mrs. Anderson headed back home. In the car, Draco thought about what had happened the past two days. 'It's kind of amusing; I supposedly came here to experience American culture, and yet all I've experienced is Japanese culture in America. Benihana's, anime, manga, otaku, and taking Japanese at CPS, it's all been Japanese! Well, hopefully what Kira said was true, and I'll get to experience some American culture at CPS.'

The next day, Draco awoke to a loud pounding on his door. "Wake up Jacob! You're going to make us, mainly me, be late for school! Not to mention our carpool!"

Once they got to school, Draco was amazed at the variety of people and colors. At Hogwarts, everyone had worn the same basic set of robes, with slight variations according to houses. But here, at CPS, it seemed like no one was wearing the same thing. As he and Alyssa walked up the hill to the auditorium, he saw friends greeting one another, and he still had yet to see one similar outfit. As they approached the auditorium, Draco recognized Kira, standing with a group of other girls and a few guys. "Hey Ki! Hi everyone!" Alyssa ran up to the group, dragging Draco along with her.

After much hugging, Alyssa introduced Draco to the group. "Everyone, this is Jacob. He's an exchange student from England. Jacob, these are my friends. You already know Kira, and this is Jason, Erica, Kevin, Christine, Michelle, Sarah, and Nick."

Draco raised a hand in hello as a man with a megaphone got up on a podium and announced "Everyone, go into the auditorium. Leave your backpacks and books outside. Everyone into the auditorium!"

Alyssa pulled Draco into the auditorium, and Draco wondered what he was in for now.

-------

once again, I'm truly sorry for the anime overload. it's what my muses demanded; they got hooked on Juvenile Orion...but that should be it for the rest of the fic. they have other outlets for that now...grumbles about excess angsty anime plot bunnies. (though i could never truly hate writing Sei/Su fanfics, no matter how angsty they get)

I know Alyssa has changed very drastically, but she'll probably revert to the original character I had in mind for her. This whole chapter was a divergence from the norm. Trust me, the first version was soo much worse. Alyssa only gets hyper around anime, which won't happen much. Espeically since at school, there won't be any anime. Good lord, Draco's OOC. I hate this story so much right now, but my friend is on my ass, demanding that i post this chapter. The third chapter will be fairly long in coming, since i want to get this back on track to what it originally was. I'm starting it, so depending on reviews and such, and how boring my history classes are.

guys, see the pretty blue button that says review? well, unless I get reviews, my muses don't come back from vacation, and there's no update. at all. 'cause w/o my muses, i'm uninspired and I don't write. So, if you want another chapter, with definitely less anime, please review


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